Sean Connery, actor, dies
Scottish actor Sean Connery, forever associated with originating the character of super-spy James Bond on film (in 1962’s Dr. No), dies at the age of 90. He played the role of Bond in six films from 1962 through 1971, relinquishing the role to Roger Moore so he could try to expand his career beyond the Bond character and franchise, though he returned to the role for a one-off 1983 film, Never Say Never Again, which was produced outside of the “official” Bond continuity and dared to acknowledge the character’s (and actor’s) advancing age. In the meantime, he had amassed a number of appearances in movies both well-regarded and otherwise, including the bizarre post-apocalyptic sci-fi film Zardoz (1974) and the sci-fi crime drama Outland (1981). In 1986, his appearance in Highlander saw the beginning of a number of films in which he played the mentor of a given movie’s nominal star, including The Untouchables (1987) and Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989). His experiences in filming his final live-action film appearance, 2003’s League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, convinced him to retire from acting; family members said that he suffered from dementia in his final years.
Hired by Lucille Ball to help turn around the fortunes of Desilu Studios in the 1960s following her divorce from studio co-founder Desi Arnaz, producer and production executive Herbert F. Solow became known as “the man who sold 
British-born actor and bodybuilder David Prowse, a towering figure who gained fame primarily as the physical embodiment of Darth Vader in the first three 
British actor Jeremy Bulloch, best known internationally for playing the role of Boba Fett in 
Yugoslavian-born actress Mira Furlan, best known to genre fans as Ambassador Delenn from 
Orchestral conductor, arranger and composer Louis Clark, best known for the chart-topping early ’80s mash-up Hooked On Classics, dies at the age of 73 after a period of illness. Aside from the Hooked On Classics single and album, Clark was the architect of the orchestral arrangements for 
Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins, who remained in the command module Columbia in orbit of the moon while his crewmates, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, landed on the moon, dies at the age of 90 after battling cancer. Upon returning to Earth, Collins opted to retire from NASA and found work within the United States government, leading to his becoming the first director of the National Air & Space Museum, a facility which had yet to open at the time he took charge of it. Collins wrote a memoir, Carrying The Fire, in 1974, one of the earliest astronaut memoirs (and the first from a member of the crew charged with making the first lunar landing). Prior to Apollo 11, he had flown with John Young aboard Gemini 10, and prior to that had distinguished careers as both a fighter pilot and a test pilot. He applied for the second group of NASA astronauts, but didn’t make the cut until NASA was recruiting its third class.
Former actress Jackie Lane, who portrayed the first Doctor’s companion, Dodo Chaplet, in the 
Actor Tony Selby, known to British sci-fi and fantasy fans both as recurring rogue Sabalon Glitz in 
Actress Joanna Cameron, perhaps best known for starring in the cult classic 1970s live-action kids’ superhero series 
Writer Bob Baker, a former Doctor Who script writer who, with his frequent 1970s writing partner Dave Martin, created the character of K-9, dies at the age of 82. Born in Bristol, Baker forged a fruitful writing partnership with Martin, with their first Doctor Who story, The Claws Of Axos, transmitted by the BBC in 1971. They continued to be frequent contributors to that series throughout the 1970s, while simultaneously creating children’s fantasy series closer to home at HTV, including Sky and King Of The Castle. A 1977 Doctor Who script, The Invisible Enemy, introduced the enduring character of robot dog K-9, who would continue to appear regularly through 1981, even meriting a pilot for a spinoff series, K-9 & Company, that same year, and eventually making guest appearances in the 21st century revival of Doctor Who and its spinoff, The Sarah Jane Adventures. Baker and Martin stopped working together in the late ’70s, with Baker pursuing one solo Doctor Who writing assignment (1979’s Nightmare Of Eden) before co-creating another HTV fantasy series, Into The Labyrinth, which ran for three seasons starting in 1981. In 2009, after years of pitching the idea, a K-9 spinoff produced in Australia launched, produced by Baker (who also wrote or co-wrote two scripts). Baker was still trying to attract co-production interest in a second season of K-9, or possible a movie spinoff, toward the end of his life. Baker gained wider recognition as co-creator of the Wallace & Gromit animated shorts and movies (as well as their spinoff, Shaun the Sheep), which won both Oscar and BAFTA awards.
Actor Dean Stockwell, known to many genre fans as Al from the time-travel series 
Space shuttle astronaut Richard “Rich” Clifford, who flew three shuttle missions in the 1990s, dies at the age of 69 from complications related to Parkinson’s Disease. A Lieutenant Colonel when he retired from the U.S. Army in 1995, Clifford had been working at NASA while still with the Army, beginning his involvement with the space program in 1987. He helped to certify crew escape systems in the wake of the Challenger disaster, before moving on to assist in the design of EVA equipment in the early 90s. He flew as a mission specialist on the STS-53, STS-59, and STS-76 missions, accumulating over 600 hours in space, including an EVA lasting six hours at the Mir space station on his final flight. It was before that third mission that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, but he kept that diagnosis private until after the mission. He retired from NASA in 1997, but joined Boeing as its Flight Operations Manager from the construction of the International Space Station until the final shuttle mission to the ISS in 2011. He also worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which funds research into Parkinson’s.
Don Lind, a veteran of the Apollo, Skylab and space shuttle eras at NASA, dies at the age of 92. Born in Midvale, Utah, his service as a U.S. Navy pilot and a degree in nuclear physics brought him to the attention of NASA, and he was a member of the agency’s fifth astronaut class, many of whom went to the moon. Lind was considered for the crew of Apollo 20 until 
Astronomer Dr. Frank Drake, one of the founders of SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligences), dies at the age of 92. His fascinating with searching for life on other worlds began at a young age, and defined much of his life and career. In the 1960s, as part of a lecture, he devised the Drake Equation, a formula for calculating a very rough estimate of the possible number of civilizations capable of communicating across interstellar distances; this equation has been debated and challenged over the years, as well as gaining mainstream recognition after being cited in popular science programming (such as Carl Sagan’s Cosmos) and science fiction as well. In the 1970s, Drake and Sagan joined forces to create the “messages in bottles” affixed to the earliest space probes expected to break free of the solar system, including the Pioneer plaques and the golden records attached to Voyagers 1 and 2.
The cosmonaut who still holds the record for the longest single stay in space, Dr. Valery Polyakov, dies at the age of 80. Born in 1942, Polyakov joined the cosmonaut corps in